Persona 5 provides no shortage of ways to spend your time, but there’s one feature in these games that many players often ignore: Personafusion. On its surface fusion seems complex, unrewarding and unnecessary, but mastering personafusion can give you an edge both in and out of battle. Whether you want to advance the Twin Wardens social link or simple fuse the best personas for battle, these persona fusion tips will get you fusing like a pro in no time.

First, let’s explain…

How persona fusion works

One point of confusion when it comes to persona fusion is simply how many different options and types of fusion are available, especially as you advance through the game and level up the Twin Wardens and Prison Master confidants. Here’s what they all do:

Normal Fusion (dyad guillotine): This is the simplest form of persona fusion. You choose two personas, it tells you the result. Good for when you want to get rid of some low level personas and don’t necessarily care what the result is.

Advanced Fusion (group guillotine): The group guillotine uses three or more personas to make a single result. You won’t use this very often, not least because advanced fusion is primarily for making powerful high-level personas.

Fuse by Result (guillotine search): The most useful option, guillotine search lets you see all the personas you can make from your currently equipped personas, even sorting them by level. You should use this option whenever you start to fill up on personas to clear space in your inventory while ensuring you’re getting new and useful persona out of the process.

Network Fusion (public execution): This late-game option lets you send one persona per day off into the ether to fuse with a randomly selected persona from another player. It’s a gamble, but can potentially result in powerful fusions. Not necessarily useful, but it can be fun to try late in the game.

When and how to fuse personas

The “when” part is easy: Head to the velvet room and use persona fusion whenever your inventory of personas starts to fill up. When you successfully capture new personas during battle you have the option to dismiss old ones if your inventory is full, but that’s a waste. Fuse personas regularly to ensure there’s always room for new captures.

That isn’t the only benefit, though. Personas gained through fusion are far more powerful than those caught in the wild. For one thing, they’ll gain experience based on your corresponding confidant levels, often leveling up several times immediately after you fuse them. And you get to choose several attacks from the component personas to pass down to the new persona, giving yourself a more versatile arsenal.

As far as the “how,” you’ll always want to start with the third option, “Fuse by Result,” so you can sort the possible results by level. This ensures you’re always making the most powerful possible personas while not wasting time trying to sort through fusions that are too high a level for you to even make.

Simply select “Fuse by Result” and use R1 or L1 to tab over to the “sort by level” page, then scroll down to persona results that are at or under your current level. Start there and work your way down until there are no more results for you to make, or until you’ve expended all the useless personas you don’t mind giving up.

Which personas to fuse, what attacks to choose, and more

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to persona fusion. That’s part of the beauty of this system: It allows plenty of room for experimentation while not punishing you for making bum fusions.

Here are some general tips for persona fusion in Persona 5:

Don’t get attached

It’s easy to get attached to certain personas that you tend to rely on in battle, but the reality is you shouldn’t hesitate to use them in fusion. If they’re powerful or useful, they’ll probably result in powerful fusions, too. And besides, if you’re not happy with the result, you can always re-summon that persona from the twin wardens for a small fee.

Fuse high level personas

Beyond completionism, there’s no reason to try to fuse every single possible persona at all levels. When you’re fusing some new personas it’s perfectly fine to start with the highest possible level persona you’re able to fuse and work down the list from there. You’ll wind up missing some, but that’s no big deal, and chances are you’ll encounter them later in battle anyway.

Register personas often

As a side note, register your personas often. The first version of a persona you get, whether through fusion or in battle, is registered automatically, and you have to manually register further changes. Let’s say you capture a persona through interrogation, but later fuse a better version of the same persona that levels up thanks to your confidant link and has more attacks; you need to manually register that persona so if you ever want to summon it, you get the superior version.

Scope out other options

You should rely on the “fuse by result,” but check the other options, especially group guillotine, every so often to see if there are any advanced fusions you’re missing out on.

Cover your elemental bases

A good rule of thumb when fusing personas is to try to pass down as many elemental attacks (fire, electric, psy, nuke, etc.) as possible. You can’t cover all weaknesses with just your teammates, and you don’t want to get stuck in a tough battle without a persona that has the correct attack to exploit an enemy’s weakness. Try to carry at least one attack of each type at all times.

Other attacks can be useful too

That said, don’t focus only on elemental attacks. Stat buffs and debuffs are practically required for some late game areas, while more specific moves — such as “tetraja,” which provides a barrier for all allies that negates any pesky “insta-kill” attacks your opponents might use — can be useful in specific situations. Even high-damage physical moves (the ones that use some of your HP) can be useful, as some enemies are immune to magic. It’s best to have a well-rounded loadout.

Keep the twin wardens in mind

If you plan on fusing Personas often, we recommend improving your social link with the twin wardens in the Velvet Room. To impress them, you must find or create Personas with specific abilities at their request. As you build your relationship, the Wardens give you more options for leveling, fusing, and summoning Personas.

When the wardens give you a new mission to get a certain persona with a specific move, keep it in mind: Find personas that have that ability and then keep using them in fusion and passing the move to the result until you get what you want. Some of the results required for the twins can only be obtained through “advanced fusion,” while one even requires you use a skill card from your inventory to simply teach the move to the right persona.

Persona fusion in Persona 5 doesn’t have to be daunting. Just follow these steps and don’t expect to get the best result every time. As the game itself frequently tells you, “take your time” and you’ll be fine.

While you’re at it, check out our romance and confidants guide and how to make the most of your time in Tokyo as well.